Astros’ Justin Verlander leads Box-Toppers season player rankings report for 11th straight week

Here are the top 10 players by category (AL & NL pitching & batting) in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Aug. 1.

	AL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL PITCHERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	18.8		1	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	17.1		2	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	15.7
3	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8		3	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
4	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	14.1		4	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	13.7
5	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	13.2		5	Corbin, Patrick 3027	pi sp	dc nl	13.4
6	Giolito, Lucas 3900	pi sp	chi al	11.7		6	Paddack, Chris 4093	pi sp	sd nl	12.4
7	Odorizzi, Jake 3291	pi sp	min al	10.4		7	Castillo, Luis Miguel 3840	pi sp	cin nl	11.4
8	Snell, Blake 3688	pi sp	tb al	10.0		8	Bauer, Trevor 3065	pi sp	cin nl	10.4
9	Lynn, Lance 2992	pi sp	tex al	10.0		9	Hendricks, Kyle 3386	pi sp	chi nl	9.7
10	Sale, Chris 2806	pi sp	bos al	9.0		10	deGrom, Jacob 3343	pi sp	nym nl	9.4
	AL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP			NL BATTERS	POS	TEAM	BTP
1	Bregman, Alex 3721	3b	hou al	8.0		1	Bellinger, Cody 3781	rf	lad nl	10.2
2	Pujols, Albert 1438	1b	ana al	8.0		2	Bell, Josh E. 3682	1b	pit nl	9.7
3	Betts, Mookie 3404	rf	bos al	7.0		3	Arenado, Nolan 3306	3b	col nl	8.0
4	Gardner, Brett 2486	cf	nyy al	7.0		4	Ozuna, Marcell 3190	lf	stl nl	8.0
5	Devers, Rafael 4038	3b	bos al	7.0		5	Yelich, Christian 3334	rf	mil nl	6.5
6	Trout, Mike 2949	cf	ana al	6.7		6	Donaldson, Josh 3144	3b	atl nl	6.5
7	Kepler, Max 3664	cf rf	min al	6.7		7	Marte, Ketel 3630	2b cf	ari nl	6.0
8	Semien, Marcus 3302	ss	oak al	6.7		8	Dahl, David 3714	rf cf lf	col nl	6.0
9	Garver, Mitch 3950	ca	min al	6.5		9	Escobar, Eduardo 3135	3b	ari nl	5.5
10	Cruz, Nelson Ramon 2224	dh	min al	6.5		10	Albies, Ozzie 3953	2b	atl nl	5.5

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Astros pitcher Justin Verlander maintains the lead in Box-Toppers weekly player rankings report for the 11th straight week.

Top 10 players

Here are the top 10 players in Box-Toppers points (BTP) for the 2019 season through the games of Aug. 1.

 

	Player	Pos	Team	BTP
1	Verlander, Justin 2112	pi sp	hou al	18.8
2	Cole, Gerrit 3232	pi sp	hou al	17.1
3	Morton, Charlie 2503	pi sp	tb al	15.8
4	Hader, Josh 3881	pi cp	mil nl	15.7
5	Strasburg, Stephen 2736	pi sp	dc nl	15.7
6	Scherzer, Max 2588	pi sp	dc nl	14.4
7	Bieber, Shane 4005	pi sp	cle al	14.1
8	Ryu, Hyun-Jin 3139	pi sp	lad nl	13.7
9	Corbin, Patrick 3027	sp pi	dc nl	13.4
10	Greinke, Zack 1871	pi sp	hou al	13.2

What are those numbers after players' names?
About Box-Toppers’ team abbreviations

Meanwhile, Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers regains the lead among National League batters and Alex Bregman of the Astros regains the lead among American League batters in Box-Toppers season player rankings this week.

Plus, Josh Hader of the Brewers continues to lead NL pitchers in Box-Toppers season player rankings.

Verlander leads all players and all AL pitchers with 18.8 Box-Toppers points, picking up 2.0 points in the past week. While Verlander has led for 11 straight weekly player rankings reports, he lost the lead for three days this week, when teammate Gerrit Cole passed him Saturday before Verlander regained the lead Tuesday. Verlander leads second-place Cole (17.1) in both overall rankings and among American League pitchers.

National League batters—Cody Bellinger of the Dodgers rises to regain the lead with 10.2 Box-Toppers points, passing Josh Bell of the Pirates (9.7), who had led for the past three weeks. Bellinger ranks 16th among all players.

American League batters—Alex Bregman of the Astros rises to regain the lead with 8.0 Box-Toppers points, passing Albert Pujols of the Angels (8.0), who led last week. While they both have the same Box-Toppers point total, Bregman ranks ahead because he has more 2018 Box-Toppers points, 6.2 vs. 3.0. Bregman ranks 33rd among all players.

National League pitchers—Hader continues to lead for the 11th straight week with 15.7 Box-Toppers points, picking up no points in the past week. He maintains fourth place in overall rankings. He leads second-place NL pitcher Stephen Strasburg (15.7) on a tiebreaker—though both Hader and Strasburg have the same 2019 point total, Hader ranks ahead because he has more 2018 points—11.7 vs. 6.7. Strasburg leads all NL starting pitchers. Hader has the third-most Box-Toppers points in a single-season by a closing pitcher since 1998.

Top 10 changes—There are no players who have joined or left Box-Toppers season player rankings top 10 list this week, though Zack Greinke (13.2) changed teams from the Diamondbacks to the Astros and falls from eight to 10th place overall.

The #BT40—The Box-Toppers 40 (#BT40) is made up of the 40 players on Box-Toppers’ four top 10 category lists—AL and NL pitchers and batters. The #BT40 are listed in the chart at the top of this page.

Four players joined the #BT40 this week:

• Lance Lynn of the Rangers rises to ninth place among AL pitchers with 10.0 points.

• Mookie Betts of the Red Sox rises to third place among AL batters with 7.0 points.

• Nelson Cruz of the Twins rises to 10th place among AL batters with 6.5 points.

• Jacob deGrom of the Mets rises to 10th place among NL pitchers with 9.4 points.

Those four displaced these four players: Rangers pitcher Mike Minor, Eloy Jimenez of the White Sox, Joey Gallo of the Rangers and Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler.

In addition, two players in trade deadline deals maintained their #BT40 spots but with different leagues:

• Zack Greinke was fourth-ranked NL pitcher with the Diamondbacks last week but is fifth-ranked AL pitcher this week with the Astros with 13.2 points.

• Trevor Bauer was sixth-ranked AL pitcher with the Indians last week but is eighth-ranked NL pitcher this week with the Reds with 10.4 points.

It should be noted that the #BT40 are not the overall top 40 players, but the top 10 in each of four categories. The lowest-ranking player among the #BT40 is Ozzie Albies of the Braves (5.5 points, 10th among NL batters), who ranks 98th overall.

So far this season, 1,630 games have been completed (67.1 percent of all 2,430 scheduled), with 1,944.1 total Box-Toppers points awarded to 630 different players, who have earned Box-Toppers Player of the Game honors. There are 295 players who have more than 2.0 Box-Toppers points. There are 120 players who have made their Box-Toppers debut so far this season (nine in the past week), the first time in their career they earned Player of the Game honors.

About Box-Toppers—Box-Toppers tracks who most helps their team win the most games. Using standard box score statistics, Box-Toppers uses a simple formula to determine a Player of the Game for each Major League Baseball game played. That player is the person who contributed most to his team’s win. In regular season games, players earn 1.0 Box-Toppers point for being named Player of the Game and can earn bonus points for being Player of the Day or top player or batter in their league for the day.

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Last week’s player rankings report